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Gwen John trained at the Slade School of Art in London. As a woman in a career still largely dominated by men, including her successful brother Augustus, Gwen had to struggle for recognition. It has been suggested that the self-scrutinising intensity of this image, and the isolation of the figure, registers this, but the figure retains its privacy. In recent years, her reputation has grown and now eclipses that of Augustus.

Said by people who knew the artist to be one of the best likenesses of her; probably painted soon after she left the Slade. It appears in the background of a self-portrait of Professor Fred Brown, dated 1920, now in the Ferens Art Gallery, Hull (repr. Artwork, No.23, 1930, p.151).

Published in:Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, London 1964, I